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Sunday, February 08, 2009

Bodybuilding Posing Seminar

Yesterday morning I held the final class of 6 snowshoeing outings. The weather was perfect; calm and sunny, the snow looked as if it was studded with diamonds. My clients were treated to another fine weather session. I moved the class to the morning as I had another engagement for the afternoon.

I not only stepped out of my comfort zone, I took a flying leap from it and landed at the Myth in Maplewood. I wasn't at the Myth for a concert but will be on April 30 for Lamb of God but for a Bodybuilding Posing Seminar. Yeah.

When I made the decision to do whatever is necessary to compete in a Bodybuilding competition this fall I researched any type of learning venues that I could make available to myself. I found this seminar which still had openings.

Thinking about walking into to a room full of bodybuilders made me nervous weeks ago, but as the seminar arrived I was more excited. Excited to learn, excited to spread my wings, excited to meet others that could inspire and motivate me.

The first round was posing for the Figure class. OK, those of you that know about this world of bodybuilding will probably find these next paragraphs boring. You may be saying "well, duh" I though, am a complete newbie. I know nothing about this other than lifting iron. So, for Bodybuilding shows of course there are male and female divisions. The females divided themselves among Figure, Bikini and Bodybuilding. Figure is the division where the women have lots of muscle, it isn't heavily striatedbut the women that I see competing in Figure are heavily muscled and defined so I am not sure on this and the definition isn't quite as defined as bodybuilding. The Figure girls wear the 5" high heels, the beautiful suits with all of the crystals, no longer the one piece but two piece only. They walk along the stage and then complete the quarter turns. They don't put together a routine to music and I don't believe they complete the mandatory poses which are done in bodybuilding.

Bikini, which is a brand new division this year, is for a woman that is more 'beach body', lacking muscle definition, and even muscle at all, from what the show director was saying. She told us that if she had a Figure girl that wanted to go Bikini, she would have that Figure girl stop lifting and just diet.

Bodybuilding is the division where the woman has clearly defined, well striated muscles. Nice, big, full muscles, then dieted down and dehydrated down to show all of them off. She wears a plain two piece, no jewelry to distract from the physique in the morning for judging, preforms the mandatory poses ( Double Biceps, Front Lateral, Side Chest, back Double Bicep, Rear Lat Spread, Side Tricep, Front Abs and Thigh) in front of the judges and then completes a 30 second pose-a-thon to the music of judges choice. For the evening show the woman can but doesn't have to wear a crystal suit, makeup, bling, jewels, and performs her 60 second routine to music of her choice and a routine with mandatory and non mandatory poses. This is the night show that is more exciting and loud than the prejuding of the morning.

For those of you that live this world, please feel free to comment and set me straight. I only have a glimmer of this side and can use all of the help I can get! Any links or books or CD's you could recommend would be appreciated.

Intimidating and scary? Oh yes, yes; but what an accomplishment! To get a body into that shape, to be strong enough to follow through with this .. the diet, the workouts, the music, and to be confident, super confident with one's body to be able to get on stage and do this..amazing.

I learned so much. I learned the poses, a good pose and a bad pose. Apparently posing is everything. A bad poser can lose the comp to a good poser even if bad poser had a better body. She has to know how to pose.

Christine Bongiovanni, Minnesota's FIRST IFBB (International Federation BodyBuilders), put on this seminar. She puts on a few shows each year through the NPC. She had the bodybuilders on stage showing us the poses, then showing us a 'bad' pose versus a 'correct' pose. It was amazing.

Amy, the woman bodybuilder on stage was 16 weeks out from her show in June. She looked to me like she could go on stage with a few weeks of dieting down. Her muscles. Good grief, made my quads look non existant. She is still feminine, definately, but has lots of muscle. When I feel like eating off plan I'll think of her.

Sadly, there aren't very many women that take part in bodybuilding. Most of the women, 23 of them, at this seminar, were for Figure. Get this: 2 of the women, and one was I, were there for the bodybuilding. Lots of men were there for bodybuilding. I don't get it. I really don't. Why wouldn't more women try this? Stretch yourselves, see what you can do.

When I was driving home I was talking with Tyler. I told him I had learned quite a bit, but was shocked that so few women were involved with bodybuilding. He said "well, mom, just like your ultra running".. isn't that the truth.

I'm going to buy a few posing sessions with Christine between now and October. I'll need all of the help I can get!

I love to learn something new. I'm going to enjoy this very very much!

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Julie, How cool and interesting. I joined a gym this winter and hired a personal trainer to teach me to lift and get stronger. She is a body builder that I think does the figure posing. There are a few other girl's at the gym that are working for this too. I find it all intriguing....Not sure I could slap on a bikini and go do that! Interesting........Karen

I definitely want to hear all about this Julie! When my body recovers (if it recovers) I'm going to do a comp. Women don't gravitate towards this because they all think they'll get "big like a man". You hear it over and over and OVER!! And they believe this, despite the fact that most Americans are obese...go figure!

One reason I don't do bodybuilding is because its hard enough for me to get figure lean much less bodybuilder lean and then have to learn a routine on top of that...I have two jobs and three kids and I'm single. Doesn't leave much time or room for anything but my gym workouts lol :) I think it's awesome that your doing this and can't wait to follow your journey!

I knew Chris a little back in the day!... and have some photos of her - absolutely jaw-dropping. You might want to check with Ronda Sundermeier (on my blog list) about how to balance bodybuilding and ultrarunning, as she does both.

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12 years ago in the haze of a hangover I read Oprah's Make The Connection. It changed my life. I lost the fat, I put down the booze, began eating in a healthy manner, began to walk, then run. Run On! I first began running marathons. Liked it so much I found some crazy ultra runners in MN who showed me the trail and ultramarathons. 39 marathons and 40+ ultra marathons later ( 15 100 mile ultramarathons in the past 5 years) I am sober, lean and happy. I am now inspiring others to run, as Oprah inspired me. Coaching beginning runners is a gift I like to give every day. It's not just about running..it's about all that comes with it: goal setting, empowerment, a belief in oneself, being true to oneself. 2007 brought 4 100 mile finishes, 2008 brought 4 100 mile finishes, a BQ and PR at TCM, a PR at the 100 mile trail distace at Javelina Jundred: 23:13. 2009 brought another PR at the 100 mile distance! Amazing. Lean Horse 100, a dream come true. What holds for 2010? WHO KNOWS?? NOT I! Wow. It's 2013 NOW!